Phil Davies speaking at Wales Green Party conference

The Green Party should seek to provide an antidote to the ‘nihilism’ in politics felt in Welsh communities, Wales Green Party members were told today. Phil Davies, the chair of Gwent Green Party, made the comments in his closing speech at the party’s autumn conference in Cardiff.

Davies told the conference: “There are so many forgotten about communities across Wales that desperately need elected green voices to stand up for them.

“Don’t underestimate the levels of nihilism in politics that many communities feel. I know this feeling well, my own local authority of Torfaen had not only the lowest turnout of any local authority in Wales but indeed the entire UK in 2022.

“Is it any wonder though when in most wards it’s  a choice between a lazy Labour councillor who takes your vote for granted or an independent who only seems to be in local politics for their own political gain and narcissism? Can we blame people staying home?

“Indeed, in other parts of Wales it was even bleaker with wards going uncontested with only one person standing. We must be standing councillors in these communities.”

Elsewhere in the speech, Davies argued that only the Green Party offers an alternative to the status quo for voters in Wales. He said: “Us Greens are the only party not scared to say the current system based on a cult like belief of constant GDP growth in the name of continuing global neoliberal capitalism is not working for people or for the planet.

“This is why it’s so important that we have Greens standing in all 32 general election seats across Cymru. We are the only party offering a radically different and inspiring message for a better, fairer and greener future to the people of Wales.”

Earlier in the conference, Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter said that the Greens are planning on standing a candidate in every constituency in Wales at the next general election, are aiming to win a seat on every Welsh council by 2027 and break through by winning their first representation in the Senedd in 2026.

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